The present invention relates to improvements made in locking and unlocking devices for gyroscopic rotors for appliances used as detector elements of a piloting and guiding system for missiles or projectiles, with very high initial acceleration, of the type launched by mortars or guns. These gyroscopic appliances are used as angular measurement pickups or again as aim stabilizers for the self-directors of these missiles or projectiles.
The gyroscopic appliances to which the present invention is applicable are required to exhibit the following features in their construction and in their use: their rotor is mounted on an internal cardan, at the launching of the missile the rotor is anchored and it is set in rotation only below a certain level of deceleration of the missile or at the end of a definite time, after the firing of the missile.
Devices are known which permit the sensitive bearings of gyroscopes to be isolated from the forces applied by the accelerations during the launch phase of the missile, by the movement of the gyroscopes which applies its rotor and its frames to fixed stops as described in French Certificate of Addition 71-14950 filed on Apr. 27, 1971 or in French Pat. No. 76-07086 filed on Mar. 12, 1976. Such devices therefore compel the gyroscopic rotor and its frames to move relative to the housing in the locking phase, then to return to its initial position for the unlocking. But the major disadvantage is that such devices are difficult to transport to so-called internal cardan gyroscopes.